The Hospice

My old man in the hospice Driving a golf cart in hat and gloves First time I remember seeing him doing Something he really loves Riding on the wheels toward the end As fast as the parking lot allowed Racing the guy with Alzheimer’s Two laps around the chapel house Old men and last days Comfort waits in their room For fifteen or twenty minutes Death please don’t come too soon You spend your life running away From the day you can’t catch your breath Never talking much out loud About the journey after death Golden streets with harp filled sounds Are just a tired Sunday game Until the check in nurse at hospice Calls you up by name Nurses can shoot you with morphine When the pain gets hard and mean You lie quiet, still and uneasy As you sleep through your last dreams With every IV or shot he needed I recalled a gentle memory My old man out in a golf cart Racing toward the end and riding free Old men and last days Comfort waits in their room But for fifteen or twenty minutes Lord don’t let death come too soon Just a few more laps Before the pills and naps Dont let the end come too soon For that old man alone in his room